Tensai Tokyo Sketch Thread - Sept 28 Exhibition + Commissioned Work Tests!

[tensai]

thanks for the comments and support. im really happy i started a sketchbook. i get comments on my poop and learn something from it. sure beats mainting a blog i guess.

Diego - thanks man, glad you liking it.

That fat kid - i still think i dont understand value too much. or only very crudely. will have to keep doing some of that stuff. one thing im doing now when i work digitally, is keeping an adjustment layer on top of my art that desaturates everything underneath. so i can check them values. maybe seeing that day in day out will give me some understanding.

salaryman - thanks a lot man, means a lot coming from you. glad you like the colour. i have no formal knowledge of colour whatsoever which i wish i had. right now im just looking and going by gut/eye feeling. i do know roughly where i want to go yeah, just wish i knew how to get there a bit faster...

Bojee - that actually came after reading sienkiewcz's electra assassin for the first time. it blew me away. i find i have periods where i fall in love with some colours and just have to use them. for better or worse.

ok as for update i keep on wanting to do some designs but end up doing faces. anyway this is another attempt at no lines. just value with copic markers.



and colourless blender and PS added.


crits or comments appreciated, as always.
more soon!

[sleep]

this stuff is brilliant. keep it comin. and the photos are wow, tokyo looks sweet.

[tensai]

tie - thanks man, im trying to be consistent with updating.

after seeing bojee rocking the quick gestures i bought some newsprint and found the very nice CA wiki (check it out for great nude refs - better for your drawing than all the porn poses ).

dont know if these are gestures but lets say they are quick. didnt really measure too well, was just looking and getting that chalk down..





some headshots -





with a big fat japanese brush


vanderpoel leg


now hook me up with some crits or comments - it will be appreciated..

[purb36]

hey t, just wanted to say this place is madd hott. like most other people, i love the orange and green pipe rocket that you made, it looks awesome. its interesting to see your take on this life that is japan. keep it up with the drawing and experimenting. great stuff man. mata ne.

[Flaskpost]

Really nice stuff here! Cool personal style, man!
I like your face studies!

[marioucci]

Wicked!

the living room sketch is my favourite. sexy lines there.

Also the lok180, the ship. thats an awesome idea.

saludos

Mario

[Bojee]

Looking good, I'm glad I could inspire you. I really like the face you did with the brush, very fluid. Looks like you got the feel of it.

[max1975]

Lotta personality in your faces, and your quick drawings are looking pretty good, form-wise. And thanks for sharing those photos with us, they're awesome.

Thanks for stopping by my book.

[Alday.J]

Konichiwa, Tensai ! Boku no namae wa Julien desu, yoroshiku ! Well, my japanase is a bit rusty, I'll continu writting in english (rusty, also). First, a BIG thank you for the kind word in my SB. There's a lot of good stuff here, I dig you're studies ! So, you live in Yokyo, but you're probably not japanese, are you ? Nice to meet you, anyway !

This one is my favorite, I love the shapes and the tones, really nice !



Cheers, Tensai-san !

[tensai]

purb36 - thanks man. appreciate you stopping by.

Flaskpost - so, i dont know why exactly but i caught myself staring for something like 10 minutes at your avatar. (?) dont know what that means...

marioucci - love the scratchy lines you got in your book man. will come back to check it out later.

Bojee - you definitely got inspiring stuff going. big fat brushes are really really nice to play with. it can be sort of hit and miss but i like how you it enables you to loose control and see what comes out.

max1975 - thanks, if the faces show personality its because theyre either from life or from ref...

Alday.J - keep mixing it up in your book man.

allright - now this is something completely different. a shoedesign i did for my father that i can post this now cause its being sold so.. this is for a series of shoes with bamboo constructions. there were some problems with a couple of models, especially in the connections, and the initial idea for this one is that it would be more stable/strong because of the shape itself. my father did a lot to get the design working, together with the production guys (furniture maker and shoemakers in italy).











some pics of the test of the construction in italy









and a photo i took when i recieved the first finished shoe here in tokyo



i should show some pics while a model is wearing the shoe, cause it doesnt look like it now, but its actually quite elegant.

was a lot of fun doing this together.

as always, comments and crits greatly appreciated.

[Cuori]

hajimemashite.

yeah, nice work, and i like the shoe, it looks like it would look good on a girl, and maybe i could draw that girl

[max1975]

Actually, it does look quite elegant, but please do post some pictures of it on a foot.

Really educational too...I never had any idea what kind of process goes into designing a shoe.

[Bojee]

Hey that's really cool. Hope it does well for you.

[tensai]

Cuori - yeah, i went to the japanese importer the other day and a styliste from a magazine was trying different shoes on and it looked hot! (the shoes too...8) )

max1975 - i will post some more pics if i get the chance but right now i dont have the right sizes for the people i know. the process was a bit different from normal because of the special construction and involvement of craftsmen from other trade. thats why the shoe has to go back and forth while its being produced, which makes it more time consuming.

Bojee - thanks man. i wish we could move production to japan though. the import tax that they put on european shoes here is killing it. price is through the roof... but i will definitely try and design some more.

[shyamshriram]

Cool sketches, i really like that little spaceship coloured in PS and that shoe is AWESOME man..can u send me that
keep working on Anatomy...

[2ma2]

The lips caught my attention right away. Very dinstinct linework. In all the pieces actually. I lack a bit of the confidence in the facial studies though. A tip is to work with the eyes. If the eyes are alive, the face is alive.

Three thumbs up!

[Chingwa]

すごいのくつ。

[tensai]

thanks for the comments and crits - ive been a bit bewildered by this hokusai exhibition i went to. they managed to display 500 works from hokusai, anything from early sketches to the last illustrations he did, that are normally spread allover the world. im a big big fan of him, like others here are maybe of sargent or rockwell or something. seeing the works in real was truly incredible. the colours are so so nice and the texture of the woodblocks on the ukiyo-e prints is something that almost never translates into catalogues that well. they also had sketchbooks done by him and full blown colour ink paintings on silk. the guy was a genius at making things strong and simple while still managing visual variety. anybody in japan should go and have a look if they can.

to go back to 2ma2 said about confidence in line - its definitely something i strive for, even at the cost of accuracy. the key is to find the right balance i think. same goes for stylisation versus realism. i love the golden age paintings from rembrandt, vermeer etc. but there is also so much to say for a more charactirazation/stylized approach to depicting reality. i dont know if this makes sense without examples so ill just post some sketches now...i did these before i went to the exhibition though.







loosening up i hope.

[madplanet]

Great sketchbook Tensai. I got a kick out of your greenhouse effect nightmare duct ship done in black and orange. I can almost feel the thickness of the haze that it will have to cut its way through just to get to the party store. The man sitting opposite from you on the train with the red backround is another of my favorites in here.

[tensai]

thanks madplanet, its real interesting to see what turns people on overhere and what not.

i wanted to post (but forgot) this one-line drawing i did a long long time ago after seeing one of hokusai's ghost woodblocks.. it looks a bit old now but thought it was appropriate.



cheers,

[tensai]

i never like those photographic illustrator line drawings you see so often in magazines. i think people just trace photos or something and keep everything as clean as possible. based on the previous sketch of the guy above here, i tried to do an illustrator portrait but get a bit more life in the lines. i still dont like it, it must be possible to do this in a less annoying way...


a quick marker sketch from when i was in a meeting


and marker/brushpen sketches coloured





and charcoalpencil coloured from ref



comments and crits greatly appreciated

[sve]

Hello, tensai.
Well, I enthusiastically join to all admirers of your aircraft. And when I looked at it I remember one story connecting to designs, airplanes and beauty. So here it goes. There was one Russian engineer, actually he was the first person in Soviet Union airspace consortium, designer Andrey Tupolev. His name on the many Russian airplanes, so he was very knowledgeable and talented guy. So they build those airplanes, first in blueprints, then in clay models, then they did a lot of experiments to test aerodynamic and everything.
So even when everything seemed to be working well, the Tupolev very often corrected something in blueprints and in models. And when asked why he was doing this voodoo stuff, he always answered: "An ugly airplane doesn't fly". So he thought that visual elegance and functionality are connected. And he was right very many times, his changes brought new and better qualities as experiments showed later.
So my point is that your airplane looks beautiful and streamlined, like it is very easy to control in the air. Sorry, for long way saying this .

My favorites are:

http://www.lokjansen.com/sketchbook/lok178.jpg

http://www.lokjansen.com/sketchbook/lok180.jpg

All lips and eyes, and ears. They are more than just studies. Very sensual and beautiful art on their own. In my opinion, there is something from Renuar feminine women paintings in them, soft and erotic. Really like this grey pencil effect.

http://www.lokjansen.com/sketchbook/lok036.jpg
Lovely drawings. a little distorted maybe, but it makes it even better, very moody and charming. The room has a deepness and many interesting details for viewer to stay longer and enjoy.

http://www.lokjansen.com/sketchbook/lok202.jpg
pencil and colored

http://www.lokjansen.com/sketchbook/lok083.jpg

http://www.lokjansen.com/sketchbook/lok082.jpg

http://www.lokjansen.com/sketchbook/lok165.jpg
That's a great portrait and great design. Colors and the face are so in harmony, I think. And it looks great all together.

http://www.lokjansen.com/sketchbook/lok101.jpg
Very beautiful and skillful performance.

http://www.lokjansen.com/sketchbook/lok223.jpg This is my most favorite. great expressions and lines.

All nudes studies. No stiffness, very much alive figures.

Lacy elegant shoe. I always love when lace made from iron, wood, rocks, unusual materials. So I love this bamboo fantasy for a pretty woman.

http://www.lokjansen.com/sketchbook/lok098.jpg

Well, I left wanting to see more, please,post often.
Thank you very much
Sveta Dudetta

[max1975]

Hi tensai. Some crits for you:

http://www.lokjansen.com/sketchbook/lok044.jpg hurts my eyes. It's the blue lines on red background, hard to look at.

http://www.lokjansen.com/sketchbook/lok240.jpg is very cool, would like to see more of it.

Your recent faces are very good as far as character and personality go (and those are the most important things in my opinion) but try to pay more attention to the construction...the forms are getting distorted a bit which makes them look flat, eyes wandering into the nose or off the side of the face...not awful by any means, but it could be better.

[Fellah.]

Really dig those fast girl drawings dude! Hope to see more of those hehe. Lots of nice stuff! Like the quick marker sketch from the meeting too. Great shoe!

[marioucci]

I love the organic feel to your hardsurfacing concept man. reminds me of frank miller in ronin.
And your one line drawing is superb. says a lot to me.

saludos

Mario

[tensai]

real nice comments, thanks a lot.

sve - thanks for the tupolev story. as i got an engineering/designing education (im trained as an architect) ive always admired the beauty that some supposedly 'purely' functional designs have. i love the migs as well for this. i talked about this with a friend of mine who designs and builts robots (!) and its funny how there is this sort of two-way influence going on. illustrators being influenced by cool looking 'industrial' stuff, and people in his lab being influenced by gundam etc. its funny how when doing designs at architecture school me and others were all trying to make something functional and beautiful at the same time, and then visiting this lab full of industrial robots that were so functional and industrial and at the same time the baddest and most beautiful looking contraptions you could think of. too bad im not allowed to post some the photos i took overthere....

thanks for your detailed comments on the works man. there were some happy surprises in what you chose to comment on.

max1975 - thanks for the crits. ill try to keep that structure in check. but i find im more concerned with character and actually like it sometimes when things look a bit warped or flat. i will keep an eye on it though, and thanks for pointing it out.

fellah - well my woman is going on a trip again for work tomorrow, and i guess i will miss the female company and try to compensate... so there might be some girlies here again soon.

marioucci - the oneliner. yeah i used to do a lot of them, all unsuccesful but still fun. i love it when people get off on the one-liners though. says a lot to me too.

k, nough talking on with the doodles;
these are some of the sketches from the last couple of days when im riding the subway or the train here in tokyo. not much to say about them except that they are of course done real quick, with loads of bumping, people moving and leaving, and other passengers blocking the view. im doing most of them with my brushpen and if for nothing else theyre good for my visual memory...





















again, crits and comments greatly appreciated,
more stuff soon.

[Mikko Voipio]

Great sketches you've got here. But most of all I loved the shoe designs and the shoe it self. It's weird but it was very interesting to learn about the designing. Your thread is propably the only one that I actually read through not just looking at the drawings. Keep up with your interesting ideas.

[madplanet]

I don't know why, but I really get a kick out of seeing everyones subway sketches. It's interesting to see just what type of people you focus on and try to capture some passing reflection on who they might be. Almost all of them have the same expression. Dreary everday subway riding faces. Except for the young woman and the balding guy with the collar, they seem to be in better places. I like 'em.

[tensai]

Placeboast - thanks for reading. i do want this book to be a mix of designs, illustrations and sketches. sometimes its dificult cause design projects are not out yet or because in general the design process just takes longer than a subway sketch... will try to update with some more city sketches soon though.

madplanet - its funny that you say that. when i first started riding the trains in tokyo (six years ago) i was shocked by the tired looks and lack of life. everybody seemed to be trying to sleep. both to endure the train ride and because of overwork. its not that bad though. plenty of people talking, reading, groping young girls etc. i guess i just often take the readers and sleepers cause it gives me a change to more easily look at them.

as for update -
when i was doing this competition for a project in north korea a while ago, i did some non-related side sketches of the the dead leader with devine status.








dont know aboout that last one but i wanted to do something more rough...

comments and crits greatly appreciated

[purb36]

yo t. nice shoe; glad you picked the construction with the apex of the arch at the top, definitely the more sound and more beautiful choice. hope tokyo life is going well. okusan ga inai to, maa kaku jikan ga ipakunaru desyou? looking forward to the next stuff. interesting color choice for the last portrait...maybe try it with the national colors (swap with the gray), maybe not full saturated blue but something more than the gray thats there...some pale blue. anyway, ogenki de, ne. peace. doyoubi omedetou.